You are currently located at the historic tithe barn, the starting point of the QR code tour. The stone building which houses Breitenau Memorial dates back to the 15^th century. It was once part of the Benedictine monastery, which was founded in 1113 on the broad river meadow along the expansive course of the Fulda river. The barn served as a storeroom for one tenth of the farmers' harvest. The farmers were obligated to hand over this fraction of their harvest known as a Kirchzehnt to the church.

The Breitenau monastery was dissolved in 1527 during the Reformation. Afterwards, the site including the tithe barn went through various stages of use. The opening of the institution for corrections and the rural poor (Correktions- und Landarmenanstalt Breitenau) in 1874 was a pivotal historical event. The administration of this Prussian workhouse was placed in the historic tithe barn. When the new administration building of the institution was completed on today's Brückenstraße in 1936, a retirement home was set up on the upper floor of the tithe barn when it had become available. Additional living and sleeping quarters of the retirement home were located on the right-hand side of the lower floor. Apartments for staff members were located on the left-hand side.

After the Kassel Gestapo office on Wilhelmshöer Allee was badly damaged in an air raid in October 1943, a branch of the Gestapo was gradually established in the tithe barn. The retirement home on the first floor of the tithe barn was then vacated for this purpose. In its function as the responsible body for the Breitenau work education camp (Arbeitserziehungslager, AEL) that had been set up in 1940, the establishment of the branch office in the tithe barn also emerged from the already existing institutional link between Breitenau and Kassel. The Breitenau "work education camp" was the central detention centre of the Kassel Gestapo for the entire district of Kassel. In addition, the Weimar Gestapo also sent people to the Breitenau AEL.